Deutschlands größte Spendenplattform Mehr
| 3 loads of sand | 106,00 € |
| 27 bags of cement | 217,00 € |
| 8 pieces of rebar | 77,00 € |
| 4 days of labor by professional mason | 71,00 € |
I shared a bus ride yesterday with the director of the high school in Sorata. Although classes officially started 2 days ago, few students have arrived yet. Those from rural areas typically arrive by the start of the next school week. He is enthusiastic about giving special after school classes to our internado students again this year, and feels the bakery is a very good idea.
Alicia, Internado administrator, and the house parents and I also met with staff of the Sorata Caritas office yesterday. They are giving wonderful support for organic gardening for our students. They are enthusiastic about the students taking what they learn to their families in remote locations that the Caritas staff rarely reach. They made presentations to our students last year on nutrition, hygiene, and career orientation. This year they will add theory and practice of organic vegetable growing.
They are also enthusiastic about the bakery project. In addition to improving the students nutrition, they agree there should be a good market for wholemeal and specialty breads in local businesses thar cater to tourists.
Greetings from Bolivia! I have been here a week and now am comfortable with the altitude, even in La Paz at 3400 meters. I´ve apent most of my time in Sorata, helping prepare for the new school year which starts next week. There have been very productive meetings with the house parents Eusebio and Maria, administrator Alicia, and members of the local committee rom the village where the idea of the internado originated.They spoke very strongly of their desire to support the internado to give students from other more remote villages access to secondary schools.
I think some history may be helpful om understanding this project.
in 2001, I first met the people of Pallcapampa, and they captured my heart. I was coleading a Quaker Study Tour, visitng rural development projects funded by Quaker Bolivia Link. We had ridden half an hour standing in the back of a pickup truck up a precarious mountain track, then walked an hour up a steep trail to arrive at this small community of 17 families. Pallcapampa had received an irrigation project from QBL which enabled them to grow 2 crops a year and they were very grateful. After seeing the project our group of about 20 visitors from the US and UK sat on the grass with the community members and one of them spoke words which are engraverd in my heart - "We are young men in our village, we know how to work, and we dare to dream. Would you mind if we shared our dreams with you?"
Their first dream was to have some of their young people have access to university study.That moment was the confirmation for my coleader Newton Garver of his dream of founding an organization to support edication in Bolivia. He returned to upstate New York and founded the Bolivian Quaker Education Fund, which has funded university scholarships for students from Bolivia´s impoverished indigenous majority since 2002. In 2004, Benito, one of those students, the first from his area ever to attend university, brought me his dream of helping others get the access to secondary education to qualify for university without having to make the 3 1/2 hour round trip walk he had made for 3 years. His dream was to set up a residence in Sorata where young people from his home town of Pallcapampa and others from more remote communities could stay during the school week in a safe and supportive home away frrom home. Benito´s dream inspired donations from members of our Treasures of the Andes Study Tours and in 2006 the dream became reality. The Internado Pallcapampa--BQE now has 22 students from communities as much as an 8 hour walk from the nearest high schools. It has been a work of faith from the beginning and continues because of generous support from imdividuals in the UK, Ireland and the US.
Barbara Flynn
